Gaming Journal Archive- 1999

December 31, 1999
   I had to call about two dozen video game stores and go to about a dozen 
web sites before I finally found a place that had Wrestlemania 2000 in 
stock (ugodirect.com), and even then it took four business days to deliver 
even though I paid for overnight delivery.  
   In addition to Wrestlemania, I have also started playing Madden NFL 2000 
a lot recently.  I have found that the game is a lot more entertaining if 
you let the computer handle the receiving rather than switching control to 
the receiver as the ball is in the air.  Usually, it's just too hard to get 
where you need to be at the right moment and press the catch button at the 
right moment, so it's best to let the computer handle it.  Even though I've 
been having a lot of fun with Madden 2000 (and even though I think it's a 
lot better than NFL 2K over the long run), I still haven't been enjoying it 
anywhere near as much as I enjoyed Madden '99.  Madden '99's gameplay and 
Franchise Mode were so new and fresh that it was always hard to put the 
controller down, but Madden 2000 isn't a whole lot different than Madden 
'99.  Hopefully Madden 2001 will be a lot more innovative.

December 24, 1999
   The last week of my life has been dominated by Wrestlemania 2000.  At 
first, I thought it was too similar to WCW/NWO Revenge, but as I played the 
game more, I noticed a lot of little details that add up to make a big 
difference.  I also discovered the brilliant Road to Wrestlemania mode, 
which is just the kind of thing wrestling games need to give them replay 
value.  As Chris Jericho, I've held every title in the Road to Wrestlemania 
mode except for the world title.  Unfortuantely, I'm going to have to start 
all over now that I have returned my rental copy and bought the game.  It's 
a shame that there's no way to save your Road to Wrestlemania files onto a 
Controller Pak.

December 17, 1999
   I have spent most of the last two weeks playing the living heck out of 
NBA 2K and NBA Live 2000 in order to write my reviews of them and determine 
which one of them I'm going to buy.  Much to my disappointment, I found 
that neither game is worth buying.  I hope that next year, NBA 2K's flaws 
are ironed out and EA actually makes some changes to the NBA Live series 
instead of re-releasing it with a different name.
   Now that I'm done playing basketball games for this year, I can jump 
back into Final Fantasy 8 head-first.  I am finding that the game is 
getting more and more enjoyable as I play it more.  I also learned a cool 
Limit Break trick.  All you have to do is keep pressing O when one of your 
character's health is low, and eventually you'll be able to do their Limit 
Break.  Repeat the process next time that character's turn comes up, and 
you can use a Limit Break every single turn.  Thankfully, this trick 
doesn't ruin the balance of the game because trying to use it against 
bosses will result in the boss killing the character with low health.  What 
this trick does do is significantly cut down on the amount of time you 
spend fighting tedious battles against regular enemies.

December 10, 1999
   As you can tell by reading my NBA 2K Review, I was really disappointed 
with the game.  Just like with NFL 2K, there was a long period of time in 
which I thought I was definitely going to buy NBA 2K, but eventually I 
decided against it because the game got less and less enjoyable as I played 
it more.  
   I spent a lot of time thinking about whether I should rate NBA 2K "Good" 
or "Average," and I ultimately decided on Average.  I thought about giving 
it a Good rating since I had a lot of fun with it before it got old, but 
then I realized that just because I have a lot of fun with a game as a 
rental doesn't automatically mean it should get a Good rating or higher.  
A better indicator of what rating it should get is how I feel about it when 
I'm done reviewing it.  If I could go back to a given game and still have a 
lot of fun with it as a rental (Rising Zan, WWF Attitude, Sonic Adventure, 
etc.), then it's probably deserving of a Good rating.  If I'm sick and 
tired of a game and I'm not having fun with it anymore (as is the case with 
NBA 2K), then it probably deserves an Average rating.

November 26, 1999
   Good old Command & Conquer: Red Alert is still fun after all these years.  
I've been playing it a lot with a couple friends of mine recently, and it's 
still just as fun as it was when I first got it years ago.  As much as the 
game is focused on tank production, there is much more to it than that.  
For example, a player who just builds a lot of tanks will almost always 
lose to a player who builds a lot of tanks AND a big navy.  Having air-
forces and Tanyas can also give you a big strategic edge, and so can trying 
to maximize your income while minimizing your opponent's.  Even if you do 
focus completely on tanks, there's far more to it than just clicking on 
"medium tank" or "heavy tank" over and over again.  The economy of your ore 
trucks and your base plays a big role in how many tanks you're able to 
build.

November 19, 1999
   The Dreamcast has been pretty disappointing so far.  One of the biggest 
disappointments has been Sega's failure to come through on their promise of 
online gaming at launch.  Sega downplays this by saying that it was their 
plan all along to introduce online gaming in 2000, but the fact of the 
matter is that at one point, Bernie Stolar did promise online gaming at 
launch, regardless of what Sega says now.  My first three Dreamcast games 
(NFL 2K, Sonic Adventure, and Ready 2 Rumble) have all been good, solid 
games, but none of them are must-have games in my opinion.
   One game that definitely is a must-have is Lunar.  I can't stress enough 
how good Lunar really is, and it only gets better as it goes along.  Any 
fan of RPGs would be doing themselves a great injustice to pass Lunar by.

October 29, 1999
   Lunar continues to amaze me with its ability to get over the 
personalities of each individual character in your party.  It certainly 
does a much better job doing this than Final Fantasy 7.  Lunar's music is 
also right up there with the music in any other RPG, and the amount of 
surprising plot twists in the game is also right up there with the likes of 
Final Fantasy 7 and Chrono Trigger.  
   It's also impressive how Lunar can be so funny sometimes and so serious 
other times, and how it never makes the player feel like the transitions 
from funny to serious (and happy to sad) were arbitrarily thrown in the 
game.  When the Entertainment Software Ratings Board said "Suggestive 
Themes" on Lunar's box, they weren't kidding!  I am not exaggerating when I 
say that there are more hilarious sexual innuendos in Lunar than there are 
in every other RPG I've ever played combined.  I can imagine how Working 
Designs could have gone too far with this, but they managed to include just 
the right amount of jokes to keep gamers on their toes without over-doing 
it and decreasing the impact of each individual joke.  And as many jokes as 
there are in Lunar, they never, ever come at the expense of character 
development or plot.

October 22, 1999   
   I jumped into Ready 2 Rumble with a vengeance by kicking ass and taking 
names as Butcher Brown.  However, as time went on, I started to think to 
myself, "Wait a minute.  Shouldn't I be losing every once in a while?  Or 
at the very least, shouldn't the computer come close to beating me every 
once in a while?" Believe me, I'm not saying that I'm an incredibly skilled 
Ready 2 Rumble player (because I'm not), I'm just saying that the game's AI 
sucks so bad that you don't have to have a lot of skill to completely 
destroy the computer.  
   I've decided that I'm going to play more of Lunar before I play too much 
more of Final Fantasy 8 (or any other RPG, for that matter).  I'm going to 
be playing a lot of Lunar in the coming week, and I'll have plenty of 
additional commentary on the game in next week's Gaming Journal.


October 1, 1999
   Is Shigeru Miyamoto out of touch? That's the question I asked myself 
while reading an interview Miyamoto did with the Japanese magazine Dengeki 
Nintendo 64.  And unfortunately, it seems that the answer is yes.  He may 
be a game design legend, but remember, this is the same person who insisted 
that the N64 be cartridge-based, crippling the system before it was ever 
released with an in-efficient business model and an inferior storage format.
   Below are things Miyamoto said in the interview.

The Quote: "At this time, no titles are specifically in development (for 
the Dolphin), just the planning and preparation stages."  
   There are no titles in development, and no one has finished development 
kits (not even Nintendo itself), yet the Dolphin is supposed to be released 
a year from now?  The gaming press knows the Dolphin isn't coming out next 
year, Sega and Sony know it's not coming out next year, and Nintendo 
certainly knows it's not coming out next year.  It's an insult to the 
intelligence of gamers nationwide that Nintendo still officially insists 
that it will be released next year.

The Quote: "If the preparations are completed, a game can be completed in 
one year."
   Where is Miyamoto's logic here?  Sure, a game could be completed in one 
year... if you're Core Design and you enjoy re-hashing things over and over 
again.  One-year development cycles are becoming rarer and rarer in the 
video game industry, and I don't know of a single game that Miyamoto has 
ever developed in one year.  Most of his games take two or three years...

The Quote: "I think about three (Dolphin launch games) is sufficient.  If 
titles come out regularly after that, it should be okay."
   This quote really shows how out of touch Miyamoto is with reality.  
Three launch games?  Has Miyamoto learned nothing from the fact that the 
N64 is a software-starved piece of crap?  Is he not aware that as a result 
of that, the N64 is a joke in Japan and a distant second-place (now third-
place) system in the US?

September 17, 1999
   NFL 2K or Madden NFL 2000?  That has been the question on my mind in the 
last week as I have been playing both games extensively.  At first, the 
graphics and the "wow factor" of NFL 2K had be hooked, and Madden didn't 
seem that much different from last year.  In a way, I really wanted to like 
NFL 2K more.  Having spent the better part of the past year playing Madden 
'99, I was ready for something new and different, and NFL 2K is definitely 
new and different.  However, every time I played NFL 2K I became a little 
bit more dis-enchanted with it, and every time I played Madden 2000 I felt 
a little bit more like I was falling in love with the game all over again
(not in that way, you pervert).  Madden 2000 may not be as innovative as 
NFL 2K, but the bottom line is that I have more fun when I'm playing Madden
than I do when I'm playing NFL 2K.  And fun is what video games are all 
about, right?

September 10, 1999
   Having played Lunar a lot more over the past few weeks, I have found 
that the game's combat actually becomes less tedious and drawn-out towards 
the end of the game rather than the other way around.  There are still 
times I'm playing Lunar and I feel a little bored, but those occasions have 
been popping up less and less often recently.  I've been trying to finish
Lunar as soon as I can because I know it will go on the back burner of my 
free time now that the Dreamcast and Final Fantasy 8 have arrived (just as 
Wild Arms took a back seat for many months when I got Final Fantasy 7).  
Once I get into a streak of playing Lunar, there's no stopping me.  I 
recently played Lunar non-stop for a length of time that was almost as 
large as my streak playing FF7 in 1997.  Other than Lunar, I also spent a 
lot of time with NFL GameDay 2000 recently, hoping I would start to like it 
if I played it enough, but I never did.

August 20, 1999  
   To be perfectly honest, I'm enjoying Lunar a little bit less now than I 
was when I first started playing.  The whole gameplay formula of frequently 
conquering huge dungeons and exploring new towns gets old eventually if 
there aren't enough unpredictable events to keep the player on his or her 
toes.  The game's lack of variety has left me feeling bored on more than 
one occasion.  Also, there are more than enough dungeons and caves in the 
game, but nowhere near as many bosses as there should be.  In addition, the 
main enemy in the game doesn't appear as often as he should (I won't 
mention his name for the sake of those who have not gotten far enough into 
the game to discover his identity).  It's harder to hate an enemy and 
really want to take him out if you hardly ever see him in the game.  Lunar 
is still a fantastic game, but these flaws have been gnawing away at me and 
they needed to be mentioned.
   As a side note, is it just me, or do the first wave of Dreamcast 
commercials suck?  Would it kill them to show some gameplay footage?

July 30, 1999
   I have about 19 hours of gameplay in Lunar, and I'm sure I could have 
gotten to where I am in the game in much less time if I wanted to. Instead, 
I've been talking to all the townspeople whenever they have something new 
to say and I'm enjoying the game to its fullest.  All the hilarious sexual 
references and other funny dialogue really make it worth it to spend an 
hour talking to everyone in the game world.  And whether it's funny or not, 
the dialogue always sounds very fluid and natural, unlike many US versions 
of Japanese RPGs.  
   Also, at first I didn't like the boat scene where Luna sings because it 
defies all logic that a character could think of a whole song like that 
with rhyming lyrics off the top of her head as a way to express what she's 
feeling.  However, after watching the awesome Making Of Lunar CD that came 
with the game, I appreciate the boat scene I lot more know that I know 
everything that went into creating it.  It still doesn't make much sense, 
but watching the boat scene now gives me goosebumps every time.

July 23, 1999
   Recently, I've been spending most of my game-playing time on Lunar: 
Silver Star Story, and you can read what I think of the game in my review.  
Besides Lunar, I've also been playing some multi-player Mario Kart 64 and 
Goldeneye 007 (none of my friends will play me in Madden NFL '99 due to 
fear of embarrassment...).  Mario Kart does get a little old after long 
stretches of playing it, but it's still a great game.  As for Goldeneye, 
the more I play it, the more its flaws jump out and get my attention.  None 
of the multi-player level designs are really good, and some of them just 
plain suck.  Also, the weapons are very unbalanced.  No matter what setting 
you put the weapons on, there are always one or two weapons that are too 
powerful for their own good, meaning that possessing them gives one player 
a clear and unfair advantage over other players who don't have one in their 
possession.  This makes it frustrating when you're losing, and less than
satisfying when you're winning.  Goldeneye is still great fun, but I'll 
take Quake 2 over it any day of the week.

July 17, 1999
   After renting a Sega Dreamcast on the first day it became available at 
Hollywood Video, I don't recommend that others also rent it.  First of all, 
the only game you can rent with it is Sonic Adventure, which still needs a 
lot of work.  Not only has Sega failed to improve the crappy camera of the 
Japanese version, but the voice acting is horrible and I felt somehow 
detached from the game during the action sequences.  Then again, maybe I 
just couldn't get into the game very much because I knew I would have to 
start over the next time I turned the system on.  There's no way to save 
your game because there is no VMU in the rental package.  And yet there are
two controllers for a one-player game (tell me that makes sense).
   Also, even if you could save your game and Sonic Adventure were a lot 
more impressive than it is now, renting a Dreamcast would still be more 
expensive than it should be.  It's $20 for just two nights.  That's a rate 
of $10 per night, as opposed to Hollywood's usual $3 per night for renting 
systems ($15 for five nights).  Plus, you have to give them a $350 deposit 
in order to rent the system, although I guess I can understand this because 
without it, people would be stealing the system left and right.
   I recommend that you do what I'm going to do now that I've returned the 
system: wait until September 9 and experience the Dreamcast in all its 
glory at that time.


July 14, 1999
   After going weeks without playing Quake 2, I had a dream about it last 
night.  My memories of the dream are vague, but I do remember fragging a 
lot of people with a hyper blaster until somebody finally got me.  I had a 
craving for a first-person shooter today, and so I tried (unsuccessfully) 
to rekindle my interest in Goldeneye 007's single-player mode.  After 
giving up on that, I went back to Quake 2 and had trouble getting it 
working in Mplayer.  
   I then downloaded and installed Microsoft's Internet Gaming Zone so I 
could play the game.  I was disappointed to find that while there were tons 
of different rooms in the Quake 2 lobby, none of them had more than five or 
six people in them.  It's hard to get a good game going when you never seem 
to be playing with more than a few other people because most of the game is 
spent wandering around looking for other people.  What contact I did make 
with other players went pretty well, including one particularly memorable 
frag.  I was waiting for an elevator to come up so I could go down a level 
and pick up some health, and I was surprised to find a player with a rail 
gun come up on the elevator.  He quickly fired off a shot that missed me, 
and I knew that I had to act quickly and take him out or his next shot 
would kill me.  Thankfully, I got him in my sights quickly and mowed him 
down with my hyper blaster.  Even when you're playing on a huge level with 
only three other people, Quake 2 is still a fun time.  I hope Activision
brings Quake 2 and/or Quake 3: Arena to the Dreamcast so I can play Quake
over the Internet while laying back in my recliner instead of sitting at
my desk.


July 8, 1999
   Just as it did last fall, Madden NFL '99 is once again taking over my 
life, and it gains a little ground every single day.  I can't update Master 
Gamer without thinking about playing a game of Madden.  I can't read a 
magazine without thinking about playing a game of Madden.  I can't play any
other video game without thinking about playing a game of Madden.  I'm 
trying to ensure that the difference between this summer and last fall is 
that this time my addiction to Madden won't get in the way of my game 
reviewing responsibilities.  Last fall Madden had me so hooked that I 
reviewed a pathetically low number of games as a result, and I'm determined 
not to let this happen again.  I just have to keep telling myself to turn 
off Madden and put in the game I'm supposed to be reviewing.  Still, 
whether or not I'm reviewing as many games as I should be, I know that 
nothing can stop my addiction to Madden NFL '99.  Except maybe Madden NFL 
2000...


July 5, 1999
   I played a good amount of Goldeneye 007 with some relatives at a 4th of 
July get-together.  The game isn't that hard for newbies to pick up, so 
just about everybody can enjoy it on some level once you teach them how to
play.  I seem to be getting bored with the game more and more often during
multi-player battles, though.  Some of the level designs are really idiotic,
and it's a pain to spend most of your time running around looking for your 
enemies.  It's still a very good game in the end, and there's nothing quite 
like blowing up an enemy from across a room with the rocket launcher.  
Except of course for taking out an enemy with a rail gun in Quake 2.  Or 
getting somebody in your sights with a hyperblaster and unloading on them 
in Quake 2.  Or surprising yourself even more than your enemy by killing 
them with a regular blaster in Quake 2.  Or...


June 29, 1999
   After spending most of last fall playing Madden NFL '99, I have once 
again been bitten by the Madden bug.  I've gotten back into the routine of 
simulating all regular season games in the Franchise Mode, playing the 
playoffs, and then making tons of roster improvements during every off-
season.  My Redskins went 8-8 in the first season and missed the playoffs, 
but made the playoffs the next year.  Being the choker that I am, I lost to
the Lions in the divisional playoff game.  However, the next year I came 
back to win the Super Bowl largely thanks to my dominating defense.  I shut 
out the Eagles 13-0, beat the Packers 3-0 in overtime, beat the Falcons 
17-7 in the NFC Championship game, and then took out the Jets to win the 
Super Bowl.  It may be ten months old, but I'm enjoying Madden now just as 
much as I was when I first played it, and you better believe I'm going to 
give Madden 2000 its fair shot against the much flashier NFL 2000 for the 
Dreamcast.

June 23, 1999
   I'm still playing a lot of NBA Live '99, and I've become somewhat 
disgruntled with the whole experience.  Why is it that jumping to try and 
contest a dunk almost always result in a defensive foul being called 
despite the fact that the offensive player jumped right into the defensive 
player?  Why is it that the "keep scores close" option is horribly overdone 
to the point that your team can go from a finely-tuned machine to a bunch 
of idiots in five seconds regardless of how well you're playing just 
because you happen to be up by eight points?  Why is it that mindlessly 
running towards the basket and lobbing up a close-range shot is rewarded 
because actually trying to pass the ball around results in seemingly random 
steals more times than not?  
   This may sound like bickering, but when you've played the game as much 
as I have, these things will really eat away at you over time.  EA Sports 
should definitely address these concerns in NBA Live 2000, especially now 
that they're going to have some serious competition in the form of Visual 
Concepts' NBA 2000 for the Dreamcast.

June 20, 1999
   Before I finally returned WCW/NWO Revenge to my local rental store, I 
simulated a second computer-controlled tournament.  This one pit the 12 
fictional wrestlers in the game against the 12 finalists in my 50-man WCW
tournament.  The rules were simply that a wrestler was eliminated from the 
tournament if he submitted or was pinned, and the first side to run out of 
wrestlers is the loser.  Surprisingly, the fictional foreigners dominated 
the tournament and eliminated all of WCW's stars while only three of their 
own (out of 12) were eliminated.  Then I matched up Kevin Nash (who had won 
my 50-man WCW tournament) against one of the foreign wrestlers (Dr. Frank), 
and Dr. Frank kicked his butt.  I even granted Nash a rematch, and he lost 
again.  The more I go back and play WCW/NWO Revenge, the more excited I get
about the upcoming WWF wrestling games from THQ.

June 14, 1999
   I rented WCW/NWO Revenge and spent the better part of the past few days 
playing it.  In addition to playing it myself against the computer, I had a
big computer-controlled tournament in which the 50 WCW wrestlers in the 
game were eventually whittled down to six: The Giant (who I renamed The Big
Show), Kevin Nash, Rick Steiner, Alex Wright, Davey Boy Smith, and Jim 
Neidhart.  As if those finalists weren't surprising enough, the final three
ended up being Nash, Steiner, and Wright (somehow Wright managed to beat 
The Big Show).  I had Nash, Steiner, and Wright face is each round-robin-
style.  After Nash and Steiner both beat Wright, they faced each other for 
the championship and Nash won.  It was actually fairly entertaining to 
watch, and I can't imagine how fun it would be if I were watching 50 WWF 
wrestlers fight it out instead of watching the Senior's Tour known as WCW.

May 24, 1999
   My brother drove from Rochester, New York to spend some time with me 
before my spinal surgery, and we've been playing NBA Live '99 like madmen.
Now we've got a big eight-team tournament set up.  I let him choose all the
settings of his liking and four teams, and then I chose the same four teams
so that we would have teams of equal skill levels.  In the first game, we 
both played as the Suns and I won a good, intense, close game, so his Suns 
team is eliminated from the tournament.  If all of his teams are eliminated,
I win the tournament.  We're going to have to play for hours if we want to
finish the tournament before my surgery...

May 18, 1999
   After starting all over in NBA Live '99 after the game deleted my 
season, I built myself a pretty good team.  The five starters I drafted 
were Michael Jordan, Penny Hardaway, Keith Van Horn, Predrag Stojakovic 
(undoubtedly spelled wrong), and Sam Perkins.  I traded Penny Hardaway for 
Chris Webber because I had another talented guard who could fill Hardaway's
shoes (Isiah Rider).  Then, since I had Webber, I traded Van Horn and 
Perkins for Dikembe Mutombo, and then I traded Mutombo for Alonzo Mourning.
So before I played a single game, I had acquired the talented starting five
of Mourning, Webber, Stojakovic, Jordan, and Rider.  After simulating the
regular season and going 62-20, I choked like I always do and lost in the 
first round of the playoffs.  D'oh!  Now I'm going to make even more 
improvements to the roster and try to win it all next season.

May 15, 1999
   I found a really awesome Quake 2 server in Virginia the other day.  
After frantically click "Join Game" and sitting through the console loading
screen, I was thrilled to see that the game was playing on my favorite map.
The adrenaline rush of an intense Quake 2 game had begun, but before I knew 
it, I had been booted out of the game and got the following message at the
console screen: "This server requires all players to have an average ping 
between 0 and 300.  Your average ping is 321."  What the heck is that?  
I kept trying to get back in, but my average ping was always above 300, and
the lowest I could get it was 308.  Why would they NOT want people with 
slow connections in their game?  If I'm willing to deal with the 
frustration of pressing the fire button and waiting much longer than I 
should for it to register on-screen, why can't they?  If anything, I would 
think that they would want more people with higher pings in their games so 
they would have easier targets to shoot for.  
   I would think that if they want to block out anybody from the game, it's 
people with pings under 150 who may have an unfair advantage over others 
due to their fast connections.  Granted, there are lots of players with 
very low pings who are also great players in addition to having great 
connections, but the fact remains that if two people have the same weapon 
and press the fire button at the exact time while aiming for each other, 
who kills whom has nothing to do with skill.  The person with the lower 
ping will get the kill every time.

May 12, 1999
   I was looking for a good Quake 2 server on Mplayer the other day and had 
trouble finding one.  Whether it was a high ping on that particular server,
the game having too many players for my liking, or it being a CTF game, 
there seemed to be something "wrong" with each server that prevented me 
from playing on it.  Finally, I found one that looked OK: a Lithium server 
called Deadly Kitchen.  I noticed that a lot of people had rail guns on 
this server for some reason, and sure enough, while switching my weapons to
equip my newly-acquired super shotgun, I found a rail gun with five slugs.
I then came to the initially exciting realization that everybody on this 
server starts out with a rail gun; they just have to switch weapons to 
equip it.  
   However, I quickly realized that this does more to upset the balance of 
the game than it does to add excitement to it.  If everybody has a rail gun,
it's a much less powerful weapon because it's no more powerful than 
everybody else's weapon.  You can never experience the feeling of joy that 
occurs when you successfully work your way up to the third tier on DM8 
(at least I think it's DM8...) and get the rail gun without getting shot on
your way there.  Instead, you press C twice and you've got the rail gun.  
Much less exciting, wouldn't you say?
   And once you've got the rail gun, it's a much more rare experience to 
skillfully put somebody in your sights and take them out with one shot 
because by the time you've done that, it's likely that you've already been 
shot at from six different directions by other players, all of whom have 
rail guns, of course.  And if even one of those shots connects, you're dead
and you have to start over from one of the regeneration points... at which
point you press a button to change your weapon to (surprise!) the rail gun.
Needless to say, this completely destroys the balance of the game.  Rather 
than stick around and complain in the game, I quietly left and chose to 
write about it here.  This way all of you can read it.  Besides, I don't 
think all this text would have fit at the top of the screen in Quake 2...


May 9, 1999
   I've been playing Live, Live, and nothing but Live for a few days now as
I continue to simulate all my regular season games and play all my playoff 
games.  I've been making a lot of roster changes lately to try to make my 
team the best it can be.  Shaquille O'Neal, Adam Keefe, Kevin Garnett, 
Allan Iverson, and Penny Hardaway have all been acquired by me and later 
traded away by me.  My starting five is now Tim Duncan, Antoine Walker, 
Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Michael Jordan, and Chris Whitney (hey, I had to make 
some sacrifices to ensure that the other four guys as awesome as they are).
Besides having Chris Whitney as my starting point guard, the other 
sacrifice I had to make in order to acquire Duncan, Walker, and Abdur-Rahim 
was to basically kill the bench.  My only three reserve players are Danny 
Manning, Danny Ferry, and Bill Wennington.  If a couple of my starters go 
down with major injuries, I'm going to be screwed...

Journal Entry #11
   I've been spending most of my time lately playing Quake 2, and you can 
read all about my recent experiences with the game in Master Gamer's 
Quake 2 Journal: To Suck Or Not To Suck? As for NBA Live '99, I wasn't too 
keen on playing through any more seasons after the game erased my last one 
for no good reason, so instead I held a draft and then decided to simulate 
all my seasons and play games in the playoffs.  My starting five players 
that I drafted were Clifford Robinson, Charles Barkley, Chris Mullin, 
Michael Jordan (err... Roster Player), and Steve Nash.  
   In my first season, the team went 44-38 in the regular season I lost in 
the second round of the playoffs.  After trading Chris Mullin back-up 
forward Tracy McGrady for Kevin Garnett, my team went 58-24 in the next 
season, but as I often do, I choked in the playoffs and lost in the first 
round.  After trading Nash and back-up guard Chauncey Billups for Allan 
Iverson, my team actually played worse and finished the regular season 
57-25 (one game worse than the previous season).  I made it all the way to 
the finals before losing to the Clippers of all teams.  I then traded 
Barkley and Robinson for Shaquille O'Neal (now there's a realistic trade!) 
and my team went 58-24 again.  I'm about to play my fourth playoffs.  Why 
do I have the feeling I'm going to choke again?

Journal Entry #10
    I have wiped the dust off of my Resident Evil 2 box and started playing
it again, this time as Claire.  The game is still very spooky even when you
have a general idea about what is coming around most corners if you've 
already played the game through before.  As for Live '99, I was playing it 
a lot until I was greeted with an error message that said "The memory card 
file has become corrupt and cannot be loaded."  What the heck is that?  
This isn't a PC game; I shouldn't have to exert myself just to get the darn
thing to work as advertised.  I have also started playing Quake 2 again, 
and I spend a lot more time taunting myself than other players nowadays.  
Put me in a situation where I've got the rail gun and I'm going against 
somebody with a blaster, and sure enough they'll find a way to kill me...


Journal Entry #9
   I'm on a bit of a roll in NBA Live '99.  After losing the season opener 
against the Suns, I went on to win six games in a row.  I changed my mind 
about the McDyess-Kukoc trade and put Kukoc back on my team.  Michael 
Jordan is playing very well as usual, and Kevin Garnett is playing just as 
well as Jordan.  Shaq is a much bigger force in the middle than he was last
season, and Allen Iverson has been a spark-plug for the team with his high 
energy level and overall quickness.  I changed the settings so that after 
this 28-game season is complete, the playoffs will be two-out-of-three-
falls in each series except the one-game first series, as opposed to the 
overly-repetitive default setting of a best-of-five series followed by 
three best-of-seven series.  This way the playoffs don't last almost as 
long as the regular season, and it gives more meaning to each individual 
playoff game.


Journal Entry #8
   Next time I start complaining that a game is too easy, I want you to 
e-mail me and tell me to know my role and shut my mouth.  Just days after 
complaining that I was getting bored with NBA Live '99 because it was too 
easy, I choked my proverbial chicken and lost three games in a row to the 
Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals, thus losing the series 4-3.  You 
don't know what it feels like to feel like an idiot until you've coasted 
through the regular season and the playoffs with relative ease and then 
lost three games in a row to lose the series in the NBA Finals.  After I 
entered into my new season, I traded Grant Hill (who made it a habit to 
shoot like 2 for 7 in every other playoff game) to the Timberwolves for 
Kevin Garnett, and then I traded Penny Hardaway to the 76ers for Allen 
Iverson (who is admittedly probably not as good as Hardaway overall, but is 
definitely a better scorer).  Lastly, traded Toni Kukoc for Antonio McDyess,
which means that Michael Jordan and Shaq are the only starters from last 
season's team still on my roster.  Of course, I've still got the 
devastating off-the-bench trio of Rusty Larue, Keith Booth, and Dickie 
Simpkins!

Journal Entry #7
   Here's the latest update on my progress in NBA Live '99.  I went on to 
beat the Bucks 4-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals without much trouble, 
but in the last 30 seconds of the final game, my center Shaquille O'Neal 
landed awkwardly after being shoved by the Bucks' Ervin Johnson.  Shaq hurt
his hand on the fall and would miss three games in the NBA Finals.  After 
jumping out to an early 2-0 lead against the Lakers in the finals even 
without Shaq, I was very over-confident going into Game 3 and they beat me,
but then I won Game 4 and currently lead the series 3-1.  For some reason, 
the game is actually slightly less exciting to me than it was before 
instead of slightly more exciting as it should be in the finals.  Even with
the difficulty level on the hardest setting, it's just too easy.  The 
computer usually plays me closely, but I almost never lose and the games 
are less intense as a result.  I like winning, but not when it happens 95% 
of the time.


Journal Entry #6
   I finished my "short" regular season in Live '99 with the difficulty 
level on Superstar (the highest setting).  My record was 21-7, the best 
record in the game.  I then swept the Wizards 3-0 in the first round of the
playoffs, but they actually played me closely for all three games of the 
series.  Then I swept the Hawks 4-0 in the next round, but there were more 
than a few occasions throughout the course of the series where I was simply
being out-played by them.  Fortunately, I always managed to pull it 
together during crunch time and never came out on the losing side.  
   I faced the Bucks of all teams in the Eastern Conference Finals.  I came
back from a huge deficit to win Game 1, but then I lost Game 2 after Sam 
Cassell hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer to give his team the win.  
While I was no longer undefeated in the postseason, I entered into Game 3 
with a renewed vigor and beat the Bucks to take a 2-1 series lead, which 
is where I am in the game now.  If I can hold off the Bucks, it looks like 
I'll be facing the Lakers in the NBA Finals, as they lead the Rockets 3-1 
in the Western Conference Finals.


Journal Entry #5
   After playing Civilization 2 to for hours on end, I was only half awake 
when those pesky Celts (who had just signed a piece treaty with me) stole 
a technological advance from one of my cities.  Of course, such actions are
grounds for cancelling the treaty and declaring war, which I promptly did.
Unfortunately, the Celts have a much bigger army than I though they did, 
and they have already captured a few of my more defenseless cities.  Now 
I'm in the process of fortifying my cities with City Walls and at least two
Muskateers in each city.  I may or may not be getting a little carried away
here, but the Celts will live to regret the day they crossed me!  Off with 
their heads!
   I made a few more roster moves in NBA Live '99 and am now on a good four
or five game winning streak.  First of all, I traded the style of Kobe 
Bryant for the substance of Penny Hardaway, and was pleasantly surprised 
that the Magic actually accepted the trade.  I then traded Tim Duncan for 
Grant Hill, and lastly, I traded myself (the beastly center known as Ivan 
O'Brien) for Shaquille O'Neal.  Yes, I actually traded myself.  What can 
I say?  I was an underachiever.  Shaq has got the power and inside scoring 
ability to dunk in any player's face, including Hakeem Olajuwon, who is 
ranked four points highter than Shaq for some reason in Live '99.


Journal Entry #4
   I finally got fed up with my lackluster Bulls team and made a pair of 
major 3-for-1 trades which would never happen in the real NBA.  First of 
all, I traded Brent Barry, Randy Brown, and Andrew Lang to the Lakers for 
Kobe Bryant.  Then I traded Ron Harper, Mark Bryant, and Bill Wennington to
the Spurs for Tim Duncan.  I also signed Michael Jordan... err, I mean 
"Roster Player" back onto the team from the free agent wire.  I wrote down 
all the ratings EA assigned "Roster Player" and then went to the Create 
A Player mode and made Michael Jordan, complete with all his real ratings, 
his real number 23, and a face that sort of looks like his.  Suddenly, with
Jordan, Duncan, and Bryant on the team, the Bulls don't suck so much 
anymore...


Journal Entry #3
   As good as the in-game action is in NBA Live '99, there's still 
something big missing from the overall experience.  Maybe I've just been 
spolied by Madden's brilliant Franchise Mode, but Live's roster options now
seem kind of empty without a similar Franchise Mode.  Sure, Live lets you 
play up to ten season with players getting better and worse over time (and 
the computer will automatically propose, accept, and reject trades), but 
it's just not the same as a full-fledged Franchise Mode.  I want to have 
a salary cap, I want to re-sign players, sign free agents, draft incoming 
rookies, and everything else Madden lets me do.  Even without a Franchise 
Mode, NBA Live '99 is still an excellent game, but I will be seriously 
disappointed if NBA Live 2000 ships without a Franchise Mode.  It's the 
future of sports games.


Journal Entry #2
   I got fairly far in my NBA Live '99 season playing as the Bulls, but 
then the game erased it for some reason.  Whenever I tried to load the file,
it told me that the file had become corrupt and could not be loaded.  I had
encountered this error message before in past versions of NBA Live, but 
have always been able to eventually load the game correctly by trying a few
times.  It's not like this is a PC game where error messages and things 
like that are commonplace; this is a console game that is supposed to run 
flawlessly every time I play it.  Regardless, I love the game too much to 
quit now, and have already started another season.


Journal Entry #1
   Here's a great example of Game Emotion in Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus.  
There is a screen in which you're in the background with a Slig, and in the
foreground there is another Slig and two Mudokons.  The Mudokons, as always,
are scrubbing diligently, but the only way the Slig rewards them for their 
efforts is to beat them mercilessly every time he walks past them.  After 
waking the Slig in the background, getting to high ground where he can't 
shoot me, and possessing him, I attempted to shoot the Slig in the 
foreground.  I did, but unfortunately a stray bullet hit one of the 
Mudokons and killed him, prompting the other Mudokon to cry out, "Noooo!"  
The depressed Mudokon tried to get back to his work, but stopped to whimper
from time to time and wouldn't follow any of my orders until I patted him 
on the shoulder and said "Sorry," to which he happily responded, "OK!"  
Man, I love this game...

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